I said: Are you ready for the 2006 Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention?!?

Well, it’s happening anyway. On June 2 and 3, thousands of Bay State Dems will trek to Worcester to endorse candidates for governor and LG, bitch about the Romney-Healey administration, and pay yet another tribute to Ted Kennedy. (He should be all set after this one, guys.)

Like any political convention, this one promises to have plenty of dull moments — but not if you try this little drinking game whipped up by the Phoenix!

Here are the rules:

* Chris Gabrieli says the words “stem cells” =one drink

* Mike Dukakis sighting = place finger on nose; last one in finishes drink

Enter the wonk Chris Gabrieli’s decision to jump into the race for governor — which he’ll do this week, if all goes according to plan — has an almost Shakespearean quality.

Survivor: Worcester It’s the question of the moment in state politics: when the Massachusetts Democratic Party wraps up its 2006 convention on June 3, will all three Democratic candidates for governor still be standing?

The biggest loser Immigration may be a national issue, but it’s also going to be a major theme in this year’s state elections — and nowhere more than in the Massachusetts governor’s race.

Kicking and screaming Every four years, right around Labor Day, the interests of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and the Democratic candidates for governor become almost totally divergent.

Reversal of fortune On January 30, Tom Reilly — the Democratic attorney general and would-be governor of Massachusetts — was supposed to formally announce that Chris Gabrieli, the wealthy Democratic activist from Boston, was joining his campaign as a candidate for lieutenant governor.

The Dems are coming Here are three admittedly subjective, shoot-from-the-hip snapshots of the three Democratic candidates for governor.

BULLY FOR BU! | March 12, 2010 After six years at the Phoenix , I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck me as a blatant attempt at intimidation, it demonstrated how tricky journalism's new, collaboration-driven future could be.

STOP THE QUINN-SANITY! | March 03, 2010 The year is still young, but when the time comes to look back at 2010's media lowlights, the embarrassing demise of Sally Quinn's Washington Post column, "The Party," will almost certainly rank near the top of the list.

RIGHT CLICK | February 19, 2010 Back in February 2007, a few months after a political neophyte named Deval Patrick cruised to victory in the Massachusetts governor's race with help from a political blog named Blue Mass Group (BMG) — which whipped up pro-Patrick sentiment while aggressively rebutting the governor-to-be's critics — I sized up a recent conservative entry in the local blogosphere.

RANSOM NOTES | February 12, 2010 While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were en route to an interview with a Taliban commander when they were kidnapped.

POOR RECEPTION | February 08, 2010 The right loves to rant against the "liberal-media elite," but there's one key media sector where the conservative id reigns supreme: talk radio.